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tv   CNN Newsroom  CNN  November 14, 2012 6:00am-8:00am PST

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so i have inviolability so, um, they should not be able to cross my property. >> who is she and why does she have such powerful friends? >> hiding in the sand and changing his appearance. now he's talking about his end game. you'll hear more from him. think you're feeling pain at the pump? these jordanians are warning their king rising gas prices could cost him his throne. warning, wanke, you may be driving too close to another car. >> oh, my gosh! >> new technology that could save lives on the road. good morning to you. i'm carol costello. thank you so much for joining us this morning. more new details on jill kelley, the tampa socialite linked to a respected marine corps general and widening sex scandal.
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each day it seems more and more loik a bad reality tv show. we've seen kelley march in front of the cameras in a different brightly colored dress each day. now there are report that is her bay front mansion is -- she's having trouble. it could go into foreclosure. we also have learned that she and her surgeon husband are awashed in debt and now faces foreclosures and lawsuits. that's far different than appearances. consider jill kelley's license plate. cnn confirms she's an honorary consul of south korea. at least for the time being sheechlt raise d some eyebrows and a few chuckles when she tried to invoke some kind of imaginary diplomatic powers in this 911 call to police. she was complaining about the media outside her home. >> you know, i don't know if by any chance -- i'm an honorary consul general so i have inviolability so, um, they should not be able to cross my property. i don't know if you want to get
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diplomatic, uh, protection involve involved as well by the way bu now because it's against the law to cross my property since this is now like, you know, it's inviloble. >> all right. i'll let the officers know. >> thank you. >> she had access to two of the most powerful and respected men in washington, form er head of the cia. it was kelley who unintentionally exposed his affair and cost him his job as cia director. and then the messages she traded with general john allen, now the focus of his own investigation. tom fuentes is a cnn contributor and former assistant director of the fbi. welcome, tom. >> good morning, carol. >> so kelley san honorary consulate to south korea. now they may fire her if events warrant. this is just getting embarrassing. >> well, i don't know exactly what they're firing her from
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since that really is a pretty meaningless term in the first place. if she gets demoted from some position that almost means nothing, so what? >> it's hard to understand all of these terms. honorary consulate means she helps the south koreans set up appear parties and stuff? she introduces them to people in the united states? do you know what an honorary consulate is? >> not exactly. diplomatic status is invoked by the host country, like south korea saying this person would be working in your country and we would like to accredit them as a diplomat. that means normally a citizen of south korea who will be assigned and posted in the united states. the status of diplomatic immunity -- diplomatic status, i should say, is pretty strictly contr controlled between the two governments and not just conferred out there. the honorary title of this, it's like being a kentucky colonel.
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it doesn't mean you can go to kentucky and start telling the army what to do. >> the state department says she's not employed by the state department and has no diplomatic powers whatsoever. >> exactly. >> she's close to these powerful generals, close to the fbi agents. you're fbi. is this harmless or do you guys get warnings about these people? >> normally it's harmless. if a friend, neighbor, relative has an issue come up that they think the fbi should be looking at, they'll come to you and say, you know, hey, tom, help us out. what do you think? i would either say what you're talking about is a civil matter or maybe it's for the local police, you should consult them. if it's something that actually should be looked at by the fbi, i would go back to the office and look to the supervisor of the squad that handles those types of complaints and violations and say, here, this is what i've been told by someone. i'm handing it to you. that person decides to open the case and who gets assigned to the case. not the person, the friend, the neighbor, the relative fbi
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agent. in this particular case, kelley contacts a friend of hers, who is an agent in the tampa office. that agent takes the information into the tampa office. it goes to the cyber squad and supervisor of that squad makes the very initial determination about opening and assigning that case to a particular case agent from his squad. if the person that brings the message in or brings the complaint in in the first place really has no involvement in the continuing investigation unless they just happen to be on that squad in the first place. but normally it would go to the experts. that squad handles it. the original complaining agent is out. >> interesting. tom fuentes, thank you so much for joining us. former assistant of the fbi. >> thank you. general john allen getting a vote of confidence from his boss, defense secretary leon panetta, says allen will remain the commander of the allied and
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u.s. forces in afghanistan for the moment at least. >> no one should leap to any conclusions. no one should leap to any conclusions here. general allen is doing an excellent job at isaf in leading those forces. he certainly has my continued confidence to lead our forces and to continue the fight. but his nomination has been put on hold as a prudent measure until we determine what the facts are, and we will. >> allen could be in the final hours of his role as the nation's top military leader in afghanistan. the senate could confirm his successor as early as tomorrow. now the intersection of that political scandal and personal tragedy. in just a couple of hours lawmakers begin closed-door hearings on the terrorist attack that killed the u.s. ambassador to libya and three other americans. the white house faces withering criticism over how it responded to security concerns before and how it handled the investigation
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after. david petraeus was expected to be a key witness before the sex scandal forced him to resign as cia director. he recently traveled to libya, discussed the violence and other issues with the cia station chief there. some lawmakers say he still needs to testify. >> i will say that i think it's absolutely imperative that general petraeus come and testify. he was cia director at the time of the attack. he visited libya after the attack. he has a great deal of information that we need in order to understand what went wrong, how this attack occurred, why four americans lost their lives. >> cnn foreign affairs correspondent jill dougherty is at the state department. can lawmakers force petraeus to testify? >> you know, they definitely want him, you can see that.
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in fact, senator feinstein of california, who is head of the senate intelligence committee, wants him, is hoping that he would testify as early as friday. he was scheduled to testify this week. in fact, i believe it was thursday. that's not happening. but, you know, youf got two things. one is they believe that the information that he has, obviously, would be valuable. and, in fact, in some cases they would say crucial. the other thing is there are allegations by some republicans that the timing of his stepping down and all of his scandal is connected to the investigation. now that is surmisal on their part. that's allegations. there certainly is a lot of interest in getting him up there to tell what he knows. >> jill dougherty, reporting live for us this morning. it has been eight months since the president has held a news conference at the white house. as you know, a lot has happened since then. attacks in benghazi,
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re-election, fiscal cliff we're getting very close to. white house correspondent brianna keilar joins us now. i guess we should expect the president to address this sex scandal, too, right? >> reporter: no doubt he's going to be asked about that, carol. it's been more than eight months since the president has had really a full-length press conference. in june he had an abbreviated press conference at the g-20 in cabo san lucas that revolved mainly around foreign policy. and in august he had another brief press conference taking questions from four reporters. today we're expecting he will be asked about this scandal no doubt involving the generals and also the fiscal cliff. we expect that he will, as he has before, expressed support for tax increases on the wealthiest americans. the question may be how wealthy. the president has said $250,000 or more for a couple. but perhaps it will be more.
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we'll see if he puts meat on the bones there. and also benghazi. this will be the first press conference since that attack in egypt that killed a u.s. ambassador and three other americans. and i wouldn't be surprised as well, carol, if he gets questions about looming cabinet appointments. >> i bet he will. news conferences used to be a regular occurrence with the president. any chance these will happen more frequently? >> reporter: i don't know. we did see in the campaign that the president preferred to, instead, do sbrinterviews with local stations and use social media. obviously when there's a press conference with the white house press corps and we're all very intensely familiar with his record, it's clear that the white house has felt that the downside of a misstep has far outweighed the benefit they would get from this. however, it would be very unusual if president obama did not have this press conference after an election. this is sort of the norm that a president does this.
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george w. bush had one two days after he was re-elected. clinton, three days after he was elected. reagan actually had one the morning after he was re-elected, carol. eight days here. eight days after. >> i know. 1:00 pm eastern, that's when we're -- 1:30 pm, i should say, that's when the president starts speaking. >> that's right. >> brianna keilar, thank you. a corporate meeting, president obama along with joe biden, are hosting a ceo summit from some of the nation's top companies. you may not know their names but you probably heard of the companies they lead. ford, procter & gamble, walmart, just to name a few. because of new laws like wall street reform and obamacare have strained relationships. john mcafee is on the run from police and he says if they
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john mcafee, the multimillionaire to founded mcafee internet securities says he's now in disguise so police in belize will not recognize him, according to his interview with wired magazine. police have detained three other people for questioning but mcafee claims he is innocent and fears police will kill him. >> what's the end game at this point? >> well, you know, i don't have a clue, sir. i am, you know -- i am unable to move and that's clear. my face is plastered all the police, all the bdf have my photo. i'm -- you know, it's a small country. i'm a white man with unique features. if i leave this house i would be
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identified instantly and nabbed. so for the foreseeable future this is my home. the end game is obviously, given enough time, they will track me down. i have to eat. i have to have supplies. i'm using a telephone. they will eventually figure out which phone and triangulate it. you know, it's just a matter of time. in the meantime i would like to get out as much information as i can about the wrongs in this country. >> police in belize say mcafee is not a suspect in this murder but they still want to talk to him. to politics now. a shake-up could be on the way for democrats in the house of representatives. in less than an hour, california congresswoman nancy pelosi will announce whether or not she'll run for another term as house minority leader. dana bash joins us from capitol hill. any early word, dana? >> reporter: well, our diedre
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walsh just called and said it looks like she is staying in her job. speaking with her caucus right now as we speak to talk about her future. there has been so much speculation about whether she would go, because she has yet another term in front of her where she is minority leader or whether she would stay and try one more time to get that speaker's gavel back, get the majority back. di diedre walsh is hearing she is staying in her role as leader. i was just down there moments before coming up and talking to you, talking to many democrats. that is what they said that they hoped would happen. she certainly has a lot of loyalty in her caucus. she has led it over the past ten years. she became democratic leader in 2002, has led it for the past ten years with an iron fist.
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she has raised tens of millions of dollars to help democrats get elected. in fact, carol, she raised $80 million in the last election cycle alone. that is the word we are getting. >> republicans are sad. they believe nancy pelosi is responsible for some of the gridlock in congress. if nancy pelosi retains her leadership role, will there be changes? >> reporter: unclear. certainly nancy pelosi is the democrat that republicans like to -- love to hate. she has been the -- or maybe the other way to put it, from their perspective politically, she's the gift that keeps on giving. i can't think of another politician who has been used more and more derisiveely leley other ad than her.
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love her or hate her, she is a fascinating and very success fu pol, old school, old-fashioned pol. she will be standing up here with a whole bunch of democratic women and clearly make the point she is staying and she is the highest ranking woman and that should not go unnoticed, carol. >> dana bash, reporting live for us from washington. thank you. would you protest over $4 a gallon gas? sure, you would. but they're doing more than complaining in jordan. some of them could wind up in jail for what they're doing. spi. but they haven't experienced extra strength bayer advanced aspirin. in fact, in a recent survey, 95% of people who tried it agreed that it relieved their headache fast. visit fastreliefchallenge.com today for a special trial offer.
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now is your chance to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. quet for thank you morning, what do you make of the general's scandal? jill kelley. who is she? we know who she thinks she is, an honorary consul, who can wield power like a diplomat. get a load of this 911 call where she tried to use her supposed diplomatic clout to get the paparazzi off her property. >> i don't know if by any chance because i'm an honorary consul
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general. i have inviolability so, um, they should not be able to cross my property. i don't know if you want to get diplomatic protection involved as well but now because it's against the law to cross my property since this is now like, you know, it's inviolable. >> are you thinking what i'm thinking? salahis, anyone? although jill kelley does appear to be more adept at wiggling her way into the circles of power. kelley is not talking about the scandal publicly but, get this, she actually is an honorary consul to south korea, volunteer job with no official diplomatic policy. now the south korean news agency is reporting that officials there may fire her from her symbolic post. still, kelley remains at the heart of the escalating military scandal.
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there's no evidence right now she did anything wrong, but even without any official power, she certainly is having a powerful effect. talk back question for you today, what do you make of the general's scandal? facebook.com/carolcnn. facebook.com/carolcnn. your comments later this hour. rising gas prices may be an annoyance here in the united states but in jordan it is reason for vocal protests. if whoa did that in the united states, that would be very interesting. citizens in jordan are doing something they've never done before, speaking out against their king, an act that could land them in jail. zain verjee has been following the story. she's in london. zain, are these protests just about the price of gas? >> reporter: well, it's compounding the situation, because what's important about today and these protests is that this is so rare.
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normally, people will criticize kind of the low-level politicians, carol, but they will not go for the king himself. and they have. they said we want the fall of the regime and criticism like that is directly punishable by getting yourself landed in jail. what king abdullah of jordan has done is basically pursued these social, economic, political reforms. his critics in the opposition say they're just half steps. they're not really that significant. but what these rising gas prices have done, up by 50%, it's compounded people's frustration and, as we know, carol, frustration is a unifying force. people are upset about corruption. they're upset about a $3 billion budget deficit. other parts of the arab spring in other countries, jordan used to get a lot of money and subsidies from different countries in the gulf region, because they've been having problems, jordan has suffered. so the people feel they're paying for it and they're saying, well, why should we? >> you know, the united states
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counts jordan as an ally. >> i didn't. >> could this popular uprising affect their relationship? >> it will probably be worrying the folks at the u.s. in the state department because of the unpredictable nature of what we've been seeing over the past year or so in the arab world. jordan is considered a moderate country. u.s. has good relations with it. jordan is really key also to any peace deal with israel. jordan has given intelligence assistance over iraq and cooperates on issues of terrorism with the u.s. so, if the situation does escalate, it will be dangerous and it really depends on how king abdullah handles this delicate situation. what people are say iing is the 50% increase in gas prices, kill that. we don't want it. they have to reverse it or do something. >> zain verjee reporting live for us this morning. thank you. president obama hard at work this week trying to avoid the looming crisis of the fiscal cliff. the mayor of columbus, ohio,
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good morning. i'm carol costello. thanks for joining us. the new york stock exchange opening bell just rang moments ago. 800 facebook shares are free from lockup. alison kosik joins me from new york. explain what that means. >> reporter: lock-up essentially means these companies before they go public want to hold people back from selling their shares all at once, keep the price of those shares higher. as far as how facebook is faring as these lock-ups expire, if you believe in this theory of the economics 101, when you increase
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the supply of shares going up on the market the price usually goes down and other times when these lock-ups for facebook ended you saw the shares fall 6% and 4%. i'm seeing that theory thrown out the window because facebook shares are up % and then on monday saw them jump 4%. facebook shares have been finding their footing. the share price really has found to have found some balance. it's no consolation for those who bought it around $38 on ipo day. if you started working for facebook before it went public and you're an investor, today is payday. there will be more of that coming soon as well, carol. >> i'm still laughing over your aha ha ha. >> this one, by far, is the biggest. lots of shares being released today. two more to go. one next month, 140 shares will
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hit the market and another 47 million will be released in may on the one-year anniversary of the ipo. for these investors who got in early and who were employees early, there's usually a big rush for these investors to cash out because they're able to turn their monopoly money into real wealth, the real thing. they can take their profits and run, be carol. >> all right. understood. alison kosik, reporting live from the new york stock exchange. president obama has a corporate meeting this afternoon. the president, along with vice president joe biden, are hosting a ceo summit. dozen chief executive officers from some of the nation's top companies. you may not know their names but i'm sure youf heard of the companies they lead. ford, procter & gamble, walmart, to name a few.
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meet i meeting with those business leaders is just what the mayor of includecolumbus, ohio, says recipe to avoiding a fiscal crisis. mayor michael coleman writes an open letter to the president. in it he writes, quote, despite the success youf had bringing our nation from the edge of a second great depression and on to the road to a recovery, your relationship with america's business community has been weak at best, hostile at worst. in order to avoid the looming fiscal disaster, that relationship needs to change. end quote. mayor coleman joins me from columbus, ohio. good morning, mr. mayor. >> good morning, carol. how are you? >> i'm good. thank you so much for joining us. i would suspect that this meeting with the ceos and white house is music to your ears. >> you know, it's a great idea, bringing the corporate ceos of america together, to turn from them being hostile to allies to the president. and here is why that works. yes, go ahead. >> no, no, go ahead. finish your thought. >> here is how that works. here is why that's important.
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because the truth is this president has been very pro business. think about it. he has been strong in the auto bailout. he saved the financial markets by bailing out wall street. he has had fewer regulations than even the prior president. and his deeds have been different than words in this respect, that maybe it's time to communicate better with the corporate ceos of america. the reality is business understands -- i think they understa understand, as they have in columbus, ohio, that you can't cut your way to prosperity. >> i know, but, mr. mayor, i mean -- mr. mayor, business leaders are concerned about their bottom line. if the president is talking about raising taxes on the wealthiest americans, of which they are a part, if he's talking about adding more regulations or eliminating tax loopholes for businesses, they kind of don't like that.
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>> well, here is the deal. the deal is business leaders understand how they run their own companies. and that they know they can't cut their way to a profitable bottom line. they have to do a combination of things. they have to cut, which the president has to do. he has to make major cuts in the federal budget. and then, in addition, corporate ceos understand they have to sometimes raise prices. and they conduct their businesses the same way the president is suggesting that we conduct the business of the united states of america. a combination of cuts as well as raising revenue. it seems to me that's the logical, rational thing to do. and my belief is, as they have in the city of columbus when i needed the business community to step up on a tax increase that the public had to vote on, very concerned that the business leaders would, in fact, leave the city, take their businesses and relocate somewhere else. they ended up supporting it
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because they understand that you have to have both. not one. not just the other. it's a combination of both. and it's rational. that's how they have won their businesses. i think it's a great idea. >> you're talking about logical and rational and we're talking about the federal government and washington and congress. and a lot of people might say, yeah, i worked in columbus, ohio. you have a more tight-knit community, but it's not going to work at the federal level because nobody is interested in that. democrats might say, mayor coleman, hey, we won the election. we could play hardball with these ceos. we don't care. >> that's not the way to go. the way to go is bring in those that were hostile and make them their ally. help to deliver the message. if it can work in the center of the political universe, which is columbus, ohio, underscore the word ohio, it can work in washington, d.c. and it worked here, it can work there.
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and it's a model that has worked in the past. it can work in the future. i'm confident that the president can pull this together. >> well, i'm sure many people out there hope you're right. mayor coleman from columbus, ohio, thank you so much for joining us this morning. >> thank you, carol. you're driving fast when the car in front of you suddenly slams on the brakes. we'll show you how technology can help you survive that horrifying scenario. with the spark cash card from capital one,
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the federal government is making a big push for technology in cars. releasing its most wanted list of safety improvements, distracted driving, drunk driving and adding recording devices in cars. sandra endo took a look at the technology that could help to solve those problems. >> reporter: this is what federal safety officials want to avoid. >> oh, my gosh! >> reporter: and new technology could help. i got behind the wheel at the insurance institute for highway
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safety to see how collision avoidance systems work. this car automatically brakes when it comes too close to the car in front. >> ahh! wow! that is freaky. and it completely braked onity own. >> and prevented a crash. >> sensors and cameras installed in the vehicle can detect more than just cars. at a faster speed, watch what happens. >> and pedestrian walk out in front of you. >> oh, my gosh! ah! i hit him. >> you hit him. >> oh, no. >> but not too hard. he probably just fell over. at a higher speed we wouldn't avoid the crash. there would be a crash but because of the braker the crash would be at a lower speed than it would be without the system. >> reporter: national transportation safety board added collision avoidance technology to its list of safety improvements, wanting states to mandate these systems in all cars. >> hundreds of lives can be saved and hundreds of thousands of injuries can be prevented if
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the technology improves and you can avoid these run off the road, rear end and also the side depa departure, lane departure collisions. >> reporter: other safety systems on the market include blind spot indicators, directional headlights and an alert when a driver drifts out of the lane. the insurance institute says the automatic braking system is effective. the lane departure warning system hurts rather than helps, but it's unclear why. >> they don't seem in this early data to preventing crashes, which is a disappointment. >> reporter: transportation safety officials say once the kinks are worked out, the technology could further reduce the number of fatalities, which has been decreasing from year to year despite the increasing number of drivers on the road. >> wow, that was scary. >> sandra endo joins us. i can't believe you hit that guy, sandra. at least you missed him the second time. >> yeah. i had to go through different tests and thank you for not
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pointing out how i was screaming like a scaredy cat. it's pretty embarrassing. >> you were screaming. >> yeah. it's quite interesting to see this technology really works, automatically brakes and stops the car in its tracks before hitting the thing or object, pedestrian, the car in front of you. it's interesting to see how it works but it really depends on how fast you're going. >> the other thing is it's great to have that technology in your car but how much will the car cost you? >> right now it's only available on certain cars and it runs about $1,000 as an added option when you buy your car for the safety technology. but, carol, transportation officials are hoping that if it's required by law, it will really drive prices down and one day it could be as common as having seat belts or air bags in every car. >> that's awesome. sandra endo, reporting live from washington. republicans and democrats set to face off over the fiscal cliff this weekend. there's actually one top republican who says he's going to raise taxes. yes. we'll tell you who, next.
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and before you know it, i'm 58 years old. time went by very fast. it goes by too, too fast. ♪ but i would do it again in a heartbeat. [ laughs ] ♪ ♪ 47 minutes past the hour, checking our top stories now. new jersey residents can expect to pay more in taxes to pay for hurricane sandy repairs. here is what governor chris christie says. >> there's no magic money tree. i think most people in these towns will recognize that if they believe that the money is being spent reasonably and responsibly to rebuild their towns, they'll be happy to do it. >> state law normally caps
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property tax increase at 2%, but the law provides exceptions for emergencies like hurricanes. nancy pelosi will ask to keep her position as the house minority leader according to democratic sources. cnn's senior congressional correspondent dana bash broke that news earlier this hour. pelosi is expected to make an official announcement in just about ten minutes. toyota motors recalling nearly 3 million cars worldwide. mostly for prius models. but also with electric syst-- the moon blocked out the sun in a stunning total solar eclipse only visible from the northeastern coast of australia. and, of course, here on cnn. it only lasted about 20 seconds in some places. total eclipses are pretty darn rare to see in any region. they happen once every 370 years. ent. we've been there.
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lot of things for granted. i wanted to see if i could do something totally different than being an artist. i had someing to prove to myself. so i joined the united states marine corps. 2005, we were deployed to falluja, iraq. six months after, my girlfriend sat me down and said, you're not okay. you're not the same person that i knew before the war. if you could really do anything in the world, what would you do? and i had this interesting choreography. i would start a dance company. it wasn't a primary goal to talk about the military. but it just wasn't me not to put that part of myself into that work. >> and then she goes and you pull back. >> the whole tie-in is extremely important and it's allowed us to do community service outreach to veterans. >> imagine all the sadness and
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this is cnn breaking news. yeah, this bit of breaking news just in to cnn.
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israel says it has killed the military chief of the palestinian group, hamas. israel is bracing for expected retaliation. sarah sidener will join us minutes from now from jerusalem. all right, the talkback question today, what do you make of the general scandal? this from karen. what's the old saying? he and many other powerful men believe they'll never get caught. please. this from brian. if the media would give it a rest, it would barely tarnish the record. let this be resolved between the general and his family. this from mary. it's absolutely disgusting. honestly, i hope it's just a load of nonsense, but when it involves people in charmg of our security, you can never be too careful. this from dorothy. you couldn't script this stuff. keep the conversation going. facebook.com/carrollcnn. in char. how they'll live tomorrow.
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stories we're watching now, we're just weeks away from the fiscal cliff an the president is convening a new summit. this time, with some of the top american business leaders. she's the only person not in hiding in a sex scandal that could end the careers of two high ranking military men. now, we're learning more about how jill kelley is handling everything, including her sudden fame. despite the sex scandal, should david petraeus still testify about benghazi? one pennsylvania congressman says absolutely yet. and success may be fleeting for donald trump. >> get up -- >> i'm santa claus. >> let me see for myself. >> news room starts right now.
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-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com thanks so much for being with us. safe to say donald trump will not be part of president obama's big ceo meeting this afternoon despite the fact business leaders an the president haven't enjoyed a warm relationship, he's going to hold a big summit with the ceos. he'll entertain 12 at the white house. the topic of course, the fiscal cliff. business leaders have started to lobby the country and congress with an ad campaign. >> if congress does not act, america's entire can economy will be at risk. america's ceos have a message for washington. >> the top priority for us so to advance policies that will get the economy growing again. >> the country has to have a higher rate of growth. that begins by addressing the fiscal cliff issue. >> at the white house today, 12 ceos. you may not recognize their
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faces, but their companies are awfully familiar. american express, proctor and gamble, walmart and ford just to name a few. so wouldn't you like to be a fly on the wall at the white house? ali velshi has more. >> there's three different groups here. the group going to the white house this afternoon, then the group going to the business round table. then there's a third group, which is a fix the debt group and they've got parody ads that are going on in newspapers, so business leaders all over are getting together, although they're not the most popular people in the america right now to start with. >> what do you expect them, let's concentrate on the meeting at the white house this afternoon with these 12 ceos and will the president play nice? hardball? >> i think everybody's got to start playing a little nice. and deciding where they've got room to move. i think these business leaders are going to tell the president what the effect would be of the fiscal cliff and what they can
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probably live with in terms of compromises that can be made. what business wants is certainty. they will take that over a decision they don't love. in other words, if taxes have to go up in some places, they'd rather know that and plan for it. i think this is what they'll tell the president, this is what will help us and they'll have a good discussion and i think the president will push back a little bit and say you guys have to get on sight. that group of people, many are are friendly. the hashest critics are are the small business people. the u.s. chamber of commerce, none of whom have been invited. >> so, your best prediction. how will it go? will it make any difference at all? lawmakers have got to come to some sort of agreement. >> remember, the president is not as influenced by these folks as congress will be. these are donors to the super packs. so congressional campaign. i think there will be, i think
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you're going to end up with a friendlier tone. you're going to have them come out, make some statement. we've got some assurances they're going to work hard. i think it's a process, you're not going to get a major announcement because it's not for the president and business leaders to make a deal. it's for the president and congress, but they're ratcheting up the pressure because we have 48 days. >> thanks so much. just before that ceo meeting, president obama will hold a news conference. his first since march. wolf blitzer will bring you those remarks live. that begins at 1:00 p.m. eastern time. on clip, the top democrat in the will stay put. nancy pelosi expected to announce she wants another term as house minority leader. this is a live picture where pelosi's news conference is expected to begin shortly. dana bash broke the story in the
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last hour. good morning. >> good morning. that's right. with the help of our intrepid producer who is getting information from inside the meeting that nancy pelosi held within the last hour, with her democratic caucus, where she fo formally told them she is going to stay on for at least another two years as their leader. she has been the leader for ten years. four of those she was of course the speaker because she did not have success in getting the speaker's get gavel back, the question is would she stay or give it two years, one more try to give it back and she made clear she was going to stay. we're told from sources inside the meeting, by the way, there were some newly elected democrats in there as well, there were chants of two more years. the official leadership elections are not going to happen until after congress comes back from a short thanksgiving daybreak, but we're
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going to hear from -- and she's going to be on the stage with a group of women, in fact, the democratic women. that has been one of her trademarks and part of history that she has made that she has been the highest ranking democrat in congress, the highest to lead a party and the first female democrat to lead her party and the first female speaker of the house. >> dana bash, reporting live from washington. >> back to president obama and the news conference because it's bound to be testy. journalists no doubt will ask the president about petraeus, allen, kelley and benghazi, especially in light of new information coming out about the mistress, paula broadwell. listen to what she said in a speech about the access she was granted by then general to david petraeus. >> very clear lines and signing disclosure agreements like my xleeg colleagues, i felt i was held to a higher level of accountability, yet, i wasn't
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trusted with this opportunity to sit in high level meetings where general petraeus, on the meetings in the morning. listen to classified chatter of terrorists talk and so forth and i had that background anyhow, so i knew a lot of that information and i knew it was important to inform, but i knew there was a clear line that i couldn't gross cross. >> classified documents were found on her computer and in her home. we doept know who gave her those documents, so stay tuned. add to that, bizarre information coming out about the woman who sparked the information. jill kelley is linked to general john allen. we've learned she and her surgeon husband have racked up millions of dollars in debt and now face foreclosures and lawsuits. she's also an honorary council of south korea and tried to vote imaginary diplomating powers. in this 911 call to police, she
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was complaining about the media outside her home. >> i'm an honorary council general -- i don't know if you want to get diplomatic protection involved as well. thank you. >> kelley's role as honorary consul may be in danger, too. police are saying the symbolic post could be taken away if she proves quote problematic. now, the intersection of that scandal and personal tragedy. in the next hour, lawmakers begin closed door hearings on the terrorist attack that killed the ambassador to libya and three other americans. over how it responded to security concerns. david petraeus was expected to
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be a key witness before the sex scandal forced him to resign. he recently traveled to libya. he discussed the violence and other issues with the cia station chief there and some say he needs to testify. >> i will say that i think it's absolutely imp pertive that general petraeus come and testify. he was cia director at the time of the attack. he visited libya after the attack. he has a great deal of information that we need in order to understand what went wrong, how this attack occurred, why were americans lost their life. >> all right. these live pictures you're seeing, nancy pelosi, we told you moments ago, she plans to keep her post as minority leader in the house of representatives. she will head out and address her supporters about her big
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decision when congresswoman pelosi begins speaking, we'll talk that life for you. let's talk to another lawmaker right now. patrick mehan joins me from pennsylvania. good morning. >> nice to be with you. >> great to be with you. i'll just warn you, when nancy pelosi begins speaking, we'll probably go to that press con frerngs but ho frens, but hopefully you'll stay with us. i don't want to be disrespectful in any way. i want to talk about david petraeus and whether he should testify in these benghazi hearings. what do you think? >> as a former prosecutor, i would suggest he's material. he's a material witness and i believe he not only needs to, but how old. and i have heard reports that he will. he's necessary. he understands and was there. during the time when the benghazi events occurred.
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more has unfolded than what we understand in these last 24 hour about e-mail chains. there's still a great deal we don't know about benghazi and that's really the critical issue. >> and i just got word just as you were speaking that cnn has confirmed that general petraeus will be testifying at that committee hearing, so that must be music to your ears. >> well, it is important because again, i think he bripgs the ability to talk specifically about what he knew and when, which is the essence of the questioning. just the revelation of, by mrs. broadwell, that there might have been, cia may have been holding prisoners at a compound, i mean, this is the kind of information which is going to lead to a whole lot of questions and i think he's again a material person who would be in a position to answer them. >> congressman, i think there's a sentiment out there, that's why general petraeus didn't want to testify, because he was going to be asked about this affair.
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will you be asking? should there be questions asked about mrs. broadwell? >> well, my hope is that the focus is on finding out about what happened in benghazi. to the extent there may be a relationship of information that mrs. broadwell has brought forward that relates to what went on in benghazi, i think that's an appropriate line of questioning. there maybe be an appropriate line about whether there's any security issues associated with mrs. broadwell's access to information she shouldn't have had or shared, but my sense again is that would be a different line of inquiry and i'm concerned about what went on in benghazi and the loss of life of those brave men who were there. >> and i'm going to ask you to stand by because nancy pelosi is now coming to the stage to the podium to speak, so stick around and thank you so much for doing this for us.
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♪ still coming. okay. i think that most of them are here. good morning. more coming. more are coming. yesterday, when we gathered here, i began my comments standing here with our new members of congress by saying a
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picture is worth a thousand words. that's what they say. i said then and i say now that this picture before you is worth millions of votes. millions of votes. millions of women's votes that it took to re-elect president barack obama. millions of womens votes who helped us elect a record number of women to the united states. as you look forward, understand that you are looking into the future. the future of empowerment of women in america. you saw some of these faces
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yesterday. among the new members elect. i said then that they were part of the most diverse caucus in the history of the world, the first time the body would have a power with a majority of women and minorities as its strength and we're very, very proud of that. said yesterday we could not have the majority, but we have the gavel. excuse me. we don't have the gavel. we don't have -- we have our own gavel. we have something more important. we have unity. we do not have the gavel. we do not have the -- majority. but we have unity. i think our caucus this morning demonstrated that very clearly.
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so, i come here with my sisters when i came to congress 25 years ago, there were about 23 members of congress who were women. out of 435. just think of that. 11, 12 democrats, 11 republicans. something like that. today, we have over 60 house democratic women. very good. not enough. we want more. but all of us who were there that dozen early on, that dozen of us there, we all took responsibility to try to pull more women into congress in our state delegations and across the country. i'm very proud that in california, our delegation of democrats is the majority of women. not even counting our two
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senators. senator feinstein and senator boxer, so women are empowered in k california. i also want to acknowledge that although our numbers are great here, two of our colleagues have gone on to the senate. senator elect tammy baldwin and we're very proud of that. senator elect maise herano. only the second woman of color to serve in the senate. so, that's pretty, pretty exciting. and unfortunately, we won't have cathy hopewell and add di sutton in this next congress, but the future is soon and coming upon us and we know they will be making a great public contribution. so, here we are. in the past week since the election, we're still finishing up some of our campaigns. we're very proud of the success as i said yesterday and as you see here today. why is it important for us to
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make this statement of the strength of women in the congress of the united states? of the house democratic women? because this is where the hopes and dreams of america's families are riding. they may not know that. they may not know one party from the next and the rest, but we know that without rosa delaro, we would not have lilly ledbetter and the paycheck fairness act. without gwen moore, we would not have the violence against women act put forth the way it is. thank you. jackie spear working so hard with other members of our caucus, loretta sanchez working so hard to protect women in the military. we are so very, very proud of the chair of the democratic national committee.
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debbie wasserman schultz, who is here. i could go around here and talk about the leadership. certainly, susan davis, women in the military, has been her issue for a long time. but in any event, the point is that if america is going to reach its full fulfillment as a nation, we must have the further empowerment of women. women in the military. if we want to be at our strongest, we must give women every opportunity in the women to hold every job so that they can one day attain the top job. women in business, how could it be there there are fortunate 500 and fewer than 20 ceos at fortune 500? if we want our economy to flour ir and grow, we must lift up women's leadership in our economy. very important.
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women in the academic world. women in health care. wholesome, more n name. successful, more enteffici with thes, when women came to the polls last week, they registered their support for thoswho understood a remarkable thing. under the leadership of the women standing of america's mother, daughters and granddaughters will be heard. women are the breadwinners for our families in many cases, the small business owners in your communities, isn't that right, nidia? and the workers that will stir our prosperity. >> okay, we're going to jump
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away from this. that's new mexico announcing she wants to continue to keep her post as the house minority leader and as you can see, she invited tract wom invited democratic women of the house of representatives to stapd with her in a show of force, she says, for democratic women in the house of representatives. let's go back to washington to another part of washington. thank you so much for sticking around. we appreciate it. >> happy to do can i ask you on about nay >> kay. e wasn exactly reaching out to rws confence. she was saying tha this is a show of force for democrats in the house and madeclear. in your mind as a republican, what does that say? >> well, i hope what we don't d outset to look at division. on the violence against2h women act. had many women at the topf the and have deep respect for their
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accomplishments and what they contribute. i echo in many ways, the necessity for that to be appreciated and if r women to play a more meaningful role,ut we're one country as well and so long as it's being produced as an empowerment, i git, but we can't be providing as well. >> many republicans think nancy pelosi is the problem. at least part of the probm, for gridlock in co.ngress wh do you think? >> i'm hoping what she is is a known commodity and all of the leaders at this point in time are going to have what i call nixon to china moments in which the real test of their leadership is to be their able ability to break away from the constraints of what they normally then you know, tied to and reach out and use that leadership pulpit to gets to where we need for the best interest of the nation. and so, i'm hoping that perhaps as a known leader, she will have the credible ility to be able to
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that i think the same of the president. with that election. he has the ability to reac across and try to get compromise without having to fear that somehow, they'll be constrained by the elements on his side and of course, the same is true for our leadership. >> i'd just like to ask you about women because you know, many people say the republican party has a woman problem. so what piece of legislation will immediately fly through congress to make women out there happy? >> well, i'm not sure that there's a particular piece of legislation. i think sensitivity to issues. i pointed back again to the violence against women act. as a prosecutor, i dealt closely with many who were victims and that's a real empowerment issue. if you understand what, how a woman is victimized and how she's trying to retain some sense of control. not really just over herself, but often for the benefit of her children. so the kind of sensitivity in which you understand the circumstances that the women are facing and then speaking to that
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issue where you resolve something that helps them to gain control of their situation a little bit better, so i don't think we have to try to look for magic bullets. i think we have to listen and be responsive to things that really help women, who are often the breadwinners in single parent families and often have a lot of issues. >> thank you so much for sticking around. we appreciate that. >> delighted to be here. thank you so much. >> thanks so much. a fiscal cliff, it's coming and if obama and boehner don't compromise, could mean economic disaster, but some lawmakers say hey, there's no rush. actually, we should go over that fiscal cliff. i have a cold, and i took nyquil,
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the so-called fiscal cliff. the tax cuts and cuts could throw the country back into a recession and though the president and house speaker are promising comp mice, there is no deal in sight, but some think taking a tstep off the cliff ma not lead to such a bad thing. one of those congressmen joins me now. waek, congressman. so, we hear all these dire things, if we go off the cliff, the country will be thrown into a deep recession. really? seriously? we should allow the country to go off the fiscal cliff? >> what the country need ss a sustainable and serious deal on the debt and that's got to be balanced. it has to include revenues and squeezing the pentagon a bit and obviously, maybing some entitlement reforms. if the leap adership an preside can negotiate that, that's great, but the worst option would be if they failed to
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negotiate and i'm a real skeptic, then the worst thing we could do is change the date from january 1 to say august or september. that would send a terrible signal to the markets. congress once again dodging its responsibilities and our responsibilities to come up with something that's durable and sustainable. if january 1 comes then, it's not so much a cliff as it is a slope. we would be under enormous pressure to come up with that balanced deal, so my view is much better for us to get a good, durable deal that is achieved before and after january 1. >> so, congressman, you know, i never want to hear the term fiscal which i have again. i mean, the election sent a mandate. we want something done. >> you're right about that and if the leadership and the president are able to negotiate and we get it done, that would be the best thing. but you know, there's got to be
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revenues. this election, people said two things. one is you guys ought to work together and two, revenues have to be part of the package. the speaker is making soothing words about revenue, but he hasn't shown us the money yet. if we're going to make progress, he has to come forward with a serious plan that meets what we would raise if you eliminated the bush era tax cuts for folks over $250,000. >> are you saying the president should play hardball? he met with leaders yesterday. he's meeting with business leaders today. he's going to meet with lawmakers from both parties tomorrow. is he wasting his time? >> not at ul. i would say be practical and realistic. ss that we have to have a substantial deal that includes revenues and for the past two years, that's not only been off the table in the republican house, the ryan budget cut
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revenues substantially. mitt romney's effective tax rate gone to 1%. so if we're going to make progress and it's consistent, then mr. boehner and i think he has some interest in doing this. he's got to come up with substantial revenues as a contributor to a debt deal. >> i guess the best thing is that everybody's talking, but in your mind, what is the percentage that there will be a deal by january 1st? i say it's less than 50-50. there have been no discussion for two years. now, we've had an election. the world has changed, but is there the time that's required to have the very difficult discussions about entitlements, domestic discretionary, limits on the pentagon and revenues? it's an awful lot to get done in a short period of time. so if we can get it done, let's get it done. >> i'm hoping for a christmas
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day surprise, congressman. >> well, a lot of us would welcome that. >> thank you so much for joining us this morning. >> thank you. this is 31 minutes past the hour. nancy pelosi likely will spend her next term the same way she spent her last one. california democrat made the official announcement moments ago. >> made the decision to submit my name to my colleagues to once again serve as the house democratic leader. >> there you have it. nancy pelosi surrounded by a host of democratic female lawmakers. we'll be right back. ♪ [ male announcer ] they are a glowing example of what it means to be the best. and at this special time of year, they shine even brighter. come to the winter event and get the mercedes-benz
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now is your chance to talk back. the question this morning, what do you make of the general scandal? jill kelley. who is she? get a load of this 911 call to tampa place where she tried using her supposed diplomatic
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clout to get the so-called paparazzi off her property. >> i don't know if by any chance, because i'm an honorary consul general, so i have involablety, i don't know if you want to get diplomatic protection involved as well, since this is now like you know, it's inviable. >> are you thinking what i'm thinking? salahis, anyone? you know the couple who showed up at the white house dinner? although jill kelley does appear to be in adept to wiggling her way into circles of power. kelley's not talking about the scandal publicly, but get this. she actually is an honorary consul to south korea. a volunteer job with no official diplomatic capacity. sort of like a glorified social secretary. now, the south korea news agency is is reporting officials there
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may fire her from that symbolic post, still, kelley remains at the heart of the escalating military scandal. there's no evidence she did anything wrong, but even without any official power, she's certainly having a powerful effe effect. talk back today, what do you make of the general scandal? your responses later this hour. . my credit card rewards are easy to remember. with the bankamericard cash rewards credit card, i earn 1% cash back everywhere, every time. [ both ] 2% back on groceries. [ all ] 3% on gas! no hoops to jump through. i earn more cash back on the things i buy most. [ woman in pet store ] it's as easy as... [ all ] one! -two. -[ all ] three! [ male announcer ] the bankamericard cash rewards credit card. apply online or at a bank of america near you.
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the story everyone is talking about, highly controversial, could result in a huge crisis and everybody has their own take on what should happen. i'm not talking about the sex scandal. i'm talking about the fiscal cliff. the president is meeting with business leaders today trying to work out a deal. joining me now, political science professor, jason johnson and republican strategist, ron
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bonnjean. ron, so we just heard from nancy pelosi. she's keeping her leadership post. of course, to avoid the fiscal cliff, we need compromise in congress. are republicans celebrating now that nancy pelosi's going to stay at her post? >> well, yes, actually we love the fact nancy pelosi's staying in her post. she's a very liberal leader. she has kept the house in minority status. she lost the house in 2010 and we're glad she's there. at the same time, we need leaders to compromise with on the fiscal cliff. speaker boehner is working with president obama and has offered a reasonable package. tax -- revenue raisers as well as entitlement reforms in order to get in done. >> okay, so the president, jason, is meeting with these top ceos, abiliout a dozen and is gg to be talking to them about tax hikes.
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she does all of this make america feel better about a compromise in congress as it applies to the fiscal cliff? >> i don't think it makes america feel better. i think what we're hoping for is after a two year long presidential election where the country basically decided they agreed with what barack obama wants to do, that we're not going to see a bunch of unnecessary political posturing. the end of the payroll tax cut is something that's going to hit every american in the pocketbook and that alone, not to mention unemployment benefits ending, i think those are the kinds of things, america wants those fixed. >> i interviewed congress welch, who's a democrat. he said if republicans don't go along, then we should just allow the country to go off the fiscal cliff until we can get a better deal. >> well, that doesn't make a lot of sense because republicans are willing to compromise.
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and if they're not and the country does go off a fiscal cliff, it will crash into the rocks below, send us back to a recession, millions of people unemployed and there's a lot of other bad things that are going to go along with it including lost gdp, productivity. the list goes on and on and i think having a reasonable conversation where the leaders can sit down and hammer this out makes a lot of sense. i don't think sending to the cliff racing for pink slips makes any sense to me at all and democratic members of congress who say that, that's rather irresponsible. >> what do you think, jason? some economists even say oh, it won't be that bad because the business community only needs to know that they're working on a viable deal. >> right. it's not so much a fiscal cliff. like i said, the payroll tax, it's like a bathtub filling with water that's going to spill over the sides. it's inconvenient, but it will
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take it a while before it ruins your house. we just had a two-year long campaign about these issues. americans believe by 50% not to mention 55 seats in the senate, that the democrats plan is better and i think probably time for the republican party, yes, barack obama negotiate d a bad deal a year ago, to roll over and say look, we're going to go with the mandate the president has. >> all right, we'll see. thanks so much. >> thank you. >> we'll bring you the president's news conference later this afternoon. 1:30 eastern time we think, so tune in to cnn for special coverage with wolf blitzer. that begins at 1:00 eastern. [ female announcer ] introducing yoplait greek 100. 100% new.
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the. no stranger to controversy, even pokes fun of himself in
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this macy's commercial. take a look. >> i'm santa claus. >> let me see for myself. >> oh, go ahead, pull it. >> see, tommy, i told you he was real. >> you also said that about the easter bunny. >> trumps recent twitter ramp e rampage, it went too far. the online petition to have macy's boot trump to yes over half a million signatures. alison kosik is continuing to follow this story from new york. so, i -- i mean, he has a perfume, who would want to smell like donald trump? >> it's not just perfume. the ties, suits, everything. this also involves cher. when was the last time we heard about cher? i may have heard a song from the '90s. it's between cher as well. you mentioned that petition that's online where over a half million people are signing on.
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they're asking for macy's to pull its trump merchandise. it's a reaction to negative comments he made during the election about president obama and it's prompted some mud slinging on twitter with cher saying i'll never go o to macy's again and trump fired back, you know, cher should spend more time focusing on her family and dying career. >> well, you know, at some points, that's a lot of signature, right? at some point, it's going to start to hurt the trump brand, right? >> not necessarily. >> his merchandise all about him because it has his name on it. >> it could be, but for now, macy's is not giving into the pressure. he's with been in macy's ads for years now. same are others, from justin bieber to martha stewart.
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they're saying macy's offerings are not representative of any political position. many of the individuals associated with products sold at macy's express personal opinions that are not related to the philosophies of the companies and trump's got this whole line that's selling really well and others in the twitter verse are saying just as cher has every right not to shop at macy's, trump has every right to tweet his opinions. it's free speech. isn't that what our country's about? >> you're right about that part f the equation. we'll see what happens. alison kosik at the new york stock exchange. talk back question today, what do you make of the generals' scandal? [ male announcer ] can a car be built around a state of mind? ♪ announcing the all-new 2013 malibu from chevrolet. ♪ with a remarkable new interior featuring the available chevrolet mylink infotainment system.
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what do you make of the generals scandal? it's between him and his wife and everyone should stop caring about it. some think this is a private,% that will matter, but such acts by top leaders are immoral and unethical, which usually means there are deeper problems in our defense. please keep investigating. older men with some form of power, younger women who massage
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their go o egos, nothing new about that. thanks for your comments. if you want to continue the conversation, thanks for joining us today. ♪ hi dad. many years from now, when the subaru is theirs... hey. you missed a spot. ...i'll look back on this day and laugh. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.
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